Methodist Church in Ireland apologises over past abuse cases

The Methodist Church in Ireland has apologised after a safeguarding review found there had been 30 historic cases of abuse within the denomination.

The church said the review, launched in November 2020, had not been prompted by any specific incident.

It found most of the cases involved accusations against lay volunteer leaders. Six involved ministers.

The church said some of the 30 cases involved abuse that resulted in police action.

The others cases involved:

• Inappropriate physical violence that did not result in any police action

• Peer-to-peer physical, sexual or emotional abuse that did not result in police action

• Inappropriate relationships between young adult leaders and teenage participants

• Inappropriate use of social media

After an investigation it was deemed that there was "no issue to address" in some of the 30 cases.

Most of them happened after 1998.

'We have failed you'

In its apology, the Methodist Conference said: "The Methodist Church in Ireland apologises without reserve to all those who have been victims of abuse in the life of our Church.

"We have failed you, failed society and failed our saviour. Our processes that were designed to protect all have not done that. We have caused pain that goes beyond measure.

"We apologise that we have not been the beacon of light that we are called to be.

"It has taken us too long to recognise our failings and face up to the truth. We have failed to listen carefully to what we were being told in the past."

The authors of the report said their aim had been to "shine such a light on our past that we can clearly see what has happened, learn from this and be a better and safer place because of this".

They said they would do so by implementing a series of recommendations and "to commit ourselves to continuing to learn".